POVERTY

Andre Fritze has requested the lyrics to this song which I wrote in Sydney in the 80s with Martin Cilia around the time of Surplus and Dearth. It didn’t make that album but I decided to add it to the CD re-issue of This is my Planet which I renamed This Is Your Planet. That CD sold out so it can now be found on the double CD Correct Planet – which contains all the songs from Correct Weight (1979) plus all the tracks from the re-issue This is your Planet. I was looking for a kind of Van Dyke Parks laid back feel to contrast against the lyrics which are earnest, and could easily become melodramatic and/or didactic which I hate and which would work against the genuine sentiment of the song. Nice work from Martin who did the music single-handedly. I might do a new rockier version at some point for the heck of it. BTW reckon I might be the only songwriter who has managed to get Irkutsk into a lyric.

2 Comments on POVERTY

… well remember your ‘van dyke parks’ cover/tribute ‘Bing Crosby’way back in the day (1970″s) & yes this could well be a rocker. the reason for the request was as I buy copies & give them to my friends for present , always an occasion, this song came up (as well as “common touch”- lyrics to follow from you hmmn?) & I didn’t want to spout off on something I didn’t know the background of, unlike say … “worst day” Mug’s Game Album punters! click to buy: – & the story you told about when someone on the train in Spain stole your suitcase full of songs/ or you lost the suitcase on the train, in Spain & a great song came out of that! thank you for your reply